Marketing, advertising & media intelligence

Red Bull is a brand renowned for its pioneering approach to content marketing, but companies cannot live on content marketing alone and even Red Bull needs to pay to put its ads on telly occasionally. And it's done just that with its latest global ad, which is running in New Zealand and features three Kiwi athletes—freestyle motocross legend Levi Sherwood, kayaker Ben Brown and mountain biker Brook Macdonald.

Red Bull doesn't generally comment on its own marketing tactics, preferring to let the huge number of events and athletes it sponsors do the talking. And this ad, which features the track Come Get It Bae by Pharrell Williams and was created by Kastner & Partners International, does just that. And while showing a collection of footage isn't a revolutionary approach, the ad, which was adapted for this part of the world, shows just how intertwined the brand has become with adventure sports.

Sport isn't the only area Red Bull is involved in, of course, and it recently launched Sound Select in New Zealand with a block party in late June at the Nathan Club, Roukai Lane and Orleans Bar in Auckland's Britomart that played host to 11 local artists and three top international acts.

"Red Bull Sound Select is an ongoing programme that supports local music scenes and the people who push them forward. The online music platform in New Zealand is the first steps toward global expansion following a hugely successful start in the US. Sound Select celebrates hard working artists, passionate fans and the tastemakers that shape scenes. It is part artist development programme, part event series, part digital product, part curator network; all working together to bring artists and fans closer together to #breakmusic."

Elsewhere in Red Bull land, The Red Bulletin, "the men’s active lifestyle magazine with a global print circulation of more than two million", is now also available online at redbulletin.com.

“The launch of redbulletin.com not only allows us to expand reader accessibility to a full range of platforms worldwide, it also offers media partners new possibilities for their commercial campaigns, from singular advertising initiatives to an individually designed full-package-integration on social, print, mobile and online channels,” says Wolfgang Winter, general manager Red Bull Media House Publishing.

The Red Bulletin and redbulletin.com are published by Red Bull Media House in five languages—English, German, Spanish, Portuguese and French—with five international editions and 12 localised country versions.

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